Number of children with Covid in New Belgrade school is much higher: Batut director: 29 are infected

Photo: Facebook/ОШ "Милан Ракић", Tanjug/Filip Kraincanic

Students and teachers in the elementary school Milan Rakic came back infected from a school trip and will be attending classes online for the next seven days, said the director of the Batut Institute, Verica Jovanovic. She also said that 29 children got infected, rather than 18 as the school director claimed yesterday.

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"This is about the children spending time and having classes in Divcibare (on Mt. Maljen) and 29 children are positive. They are in good general condition, and will have online classes until next Wednesday," said Dr. Jovanovic.

Many have a dilemma as to which third dose of the Covid vaccine to receive, but the director of Batut says that it is best to choose the vaccine they have already received.

"A majority of our citizens have received the Sinopharm vaccine, followed by Pfizer, Sputnik and others. It is best to receive the same again, provided that more than six months have passed since the last dose. The third dose is needed because after six months, the effectiveness of the vaccine decreases and a boost is needed," said Jovanovic. She added that doctors at vaccination stations can give recommendation as to which vaccine to get.

"All other combinations are possible, only in the case of Sputnik, the booster dose is the first dose of that vaccine," Dr. Verica Jovanovic told RTS.

Schools are places that should be closed last and there should be no fear from the gathering of children, because in the previous period there has been no great infection among school children, said Dr. Verica Jovanovic.

The first day of school went well and the schools implemented all the recommended epidemiological measures, the director of the Batut Institute told the broadcaster's morning program.

"It's an important day for all students and schools are environments that should be opened first, and last to be closed. In the epidemiological sense, consent has been given to start classes regularly, and only in 15 areas a combined regime is applied, while high school students in Tutin have online classes. There should be no fear of the gathering children because in the previous period there has been no great infection among children," Dr. Jovanovic pointed out.

Every Friday, the situation in schools will be considered, and local (public health) institutes will give recommendations on which regime should be applied going forward.

"Every day, local institutes monitor the epidemiological situation and at this moment we cannot say whether and in which areas there will be a change in the way schools, function but there will certainly be some changes. It's important to stress that any change is temporary and will apply to a specific school and environment," explained the director of the Batut Institute.

The number of vaccinated education sector workers is about 50 percent, and Dr. Jovanovic appealed on the rest to get vaccinated. When it comes to the number of infected school children, she says that they have not been monitored during the summer, because they had not been attending school during that time.

"In the period between January and April, 15,000 school-age children had coronavirus. Our appeal is that if the parents notice that the child is not of an adequate health condition, they should not send them to school," Jovanovic stressed. When it comes to the number of vaccinated children, Dr. Jovanovic said that about 5,800 children aged 12 to 18 have received the first dose so far.

"About 4,000 received both doses. It's important that parents of children under the age of 16 take their child to a pediatrician before the vaccine. If there are no health issues, the child can receive the vaccine with the consent of its parents. Children older than 16 years, as well as adults sign the consent for vaccination themselves," explained the director of the Batut Institute.

(Telegraf.rs)